begin our team coverage this morning with claudine wong. where are you and what can youtellusthismorning? >> reporter: pam, we are as close to the fire line as they will allow us here on skyview. this is the command post, the staging area. there are two lines of police tape leading to that area. they don't want anyone getting closer. they are declaring this a crime scene and pushing everyone back. this has been an unbelievable scene for hours. it rocked this scene and created an inferno that destroyed dozens of homes in its wake. the priority is to get the fire out, which at last estimate was only 50% contained. -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: -- lieutenant- governor abel maldonado, the acting governor was on the scene from 1:30 to 4:00. he has declared a state of emergency and pland a briefing hours from now. and, of course you have everyone asking how this happened. everything points to this being a natural gas explosion. a full investigation was underway but aman said they were warn in signs. >> every day i could smell that smell from the gutter and sewer. a week and a hal

comment. >> even if they don't stop ittheu.s. supremecourt may intervene and say go forward. >> reporter: if all goes ahead this will be the state's first in nearly five years, a judge halted them after he said the procedures for preparing and administering the drugs were not clear, recordkeeping was bad and the death chamber was too dimly lit for staff to monitor their procedures. the judge said he is allowing it to proceed because a supreme court ruling upheld lethal injections in kentucky and because ohio and washington state also have had 1 drug lethal injections for a year with no reported problems. that even as he presides over a lawsuit challenging the very same procedures. brown had a choice by noon yesterday to choose either a one drug injection or a three drug cocktail. he did neither. coming up we are going to tell you how the prison officials here at san quintin right now appear to be the only ones that could stay the, excuse themselves in a manner of speaking. live at san quintin, kraig debro, ktvu channel 2 news. >> we will continue to follow this story through

back inside their homes. the city manager has beenupdatingusforhours now. >> right now we're all on standby. we have had about nine units from the sheriff's department that responded. we had three engines from the fire district that responded along with fire chief and battalion chief. >> reporter: the fire department, pg&e crews are out here. we actually can't smell any of the odor that has been placed with the natural gas because the wind is kind of pushing that all away from where we are located. but we can hear this two inch line still spewing that natural gas into the atmosphere this morning. we can tell you anyone trying to access eastbound highway 24 may have trouble at this hour. the city manager has already made contingency plans for drivers commuting this morning since repairs aren't expected to be done soon. we've been told it is shut down through downtown. but brookwood has been opened. so drivers can drive past the theater and on to the freeway. we'll have more on this coming up in just a little bit. live from oridan, jade hernandez, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> two other

living around lake merritt. jade hernandezjoinsusnowfrom our newsroom with more. >> reporter: good morning. two actual assaults and two robberies took place on the same day -- [ inaudible ] >> reporter: oak land police want anyone in and and the lake merritt area to be careful and aware 0 of their surroundings, police say he man responsible m attacked the two women sunday in relatively secluded areas but the department is not saying when or where the attacks took place. both were on their way home. police plan to release a skep of the attacker later today but for now they want anyone in the area to be more alert and report anything suspicious to police. >> from what we have been seeing recently with these robberies is people distracted by their cell phone and other electronic devices so especially be diligent entering and exiing cars and coming and going to and from home. >> reporter: the attacker is african american, in his 20s, 510 to 6'0" with a medium build wearing dark clothes. police say he is armed and dangerous. live more on this. live in the newsroom. jade hernandez, back

morning news. >>> good morning. thank you forjoiningus. it'stuesday september 28th. i'm pam cook. >> good morning. i'm dave clark. let's check your weather and traffic. here's steve. >>> thank you very much. pam and dave, yesterday a lot of record highs including here and san jose and many many points in between. the fog looks like it's already starting to evaporate. inland we'll still see 100s. go 90 in san francisco. here's sal. >>> steve, right now westbound 80 traffic is moving well as you head to the macarthur maze with no major problems. traffic looking good. also the morning commute looks okay on northbound 101 approaching the 80 split. word of a broken watter pipe that has a couple of feet of standing water. we'll tell you about that. [ audio problems ] back to dave and pam. >>> sal, thank you. at 5:00 we have developing news coming from oakland. that's where a 6-year-old girl was shot while she was sound asleep inside of her home. this happened at the corner of east 16th street and seminary avenue shortly after 2:00 a.m. we're live with more information and also reactio